The Master Games
by SuperBobbica
Summary: Dean and Castiel are poked at and prodded by the Doctor's old nemesis. Tricked by the Master, they play in a battle to the death, a kind of strange version of the hunger games with the Doctor's old companions. Suddenly, Cas undergoes some strange pains and changes into something new, something that has never happened before. (Destiel, SuperWho, slight Hunger Games AU)
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Doctor Who, Supernatural, or The Hunger Games. All credit goes to The respective owners of these shows/movies/books.**

-Dean-

"Three minutes," said the Peacekeeper, pushing Sam inside and slamming the door.

Sam walked over to me. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine."

"Do you remember which districts to befriend?"

"Seven, Nine, Ten. No other word to be spread."

"Okay, good."

I glanced at my watch. "Still have a minute thirty."

Sam crossed his arms. "Hey, um... Could you do me a favour, Dean?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Try to stay alive."

"You bet I will, Sammy."

"Oh, and Dean... Keep that necklace that mom gave you. Have it as your token. Bring it back when you're done with it."

I nodded. "Bye, Sam."

The Peacekeeper dragged him out.

The last few days of training were big chances for me to talk to most of the tributes, and hopefully establish trustworthy connections to promote survival in the arena.

I walked over to the herbs and tapped a young blonde from District 9. "Hey."

She turned. Her eyes widened as she backed away from me.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you. I need to talk to you about something that happening these games. Trust me, I want to help. This won't be an ordinary event. What's your name?"

"Rose."

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Get ready to run for your life."

We agreed to meet on the rooftop of the pavilion. The Capitol had decided that it was more amusing to have people plan and strategize, and then turn against each other. When I decided to move on, I told her to tell her district partner the same thing.

"You never told me your name," she said.

"Me? Oh, I'm Dean. Dean Winchester."

"Right, got it. Midnight?"

"Midnight. And don't be alarmed when there are a few people there already, or when they come. This is going to be one hell of a fight."

I made my way over to the firing range, where Ruby was shooting at the plastic dummies.

"So you know, huh?"

She turned to me. "Know? Of course I know, idiot. Sam's my boyfriend."

I chuckled. "When did he tell you? Did he ruin it when you were 'doing it' or something?"

She glared at me. "What time are we meeting on the roof?"

"Midnight."

She nodded. "Right. I'll get the people from District 7, you go find the Tens."

News of the couple from District 10 had spread like wildfire. It wasn't hard to miss them by the medical centre, especially with the girl's flame coloured hair.

"District 10?" I asked them.

The girl crossed her arms and looked me hard in the eye. "District 2?" She shot back.

I held up my hands in defence. "I just want to help you two. I also need you to help me. So if you'll hear me out, come up to the roof at midnight. That's all I'm asking. We can be allies in the arena. There are going to be a few other people there, so don't be worried. Are you in?"

The girl looked at her partner, and he nodded.

"Good enough for me. See you later."

-Rose-

In our room, I saw my district partner staring out the window. I stepped up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at me. "Yes, Rose?"

I looked down. His eyes were piercingly blue - probably the only boy in our district that I was afraid of. "I- I just wanted to say that someone from Two wants to form an alliance. We're supposed to meet on the rooftop in a few minutes, if you... if you want to join me."

He turned back. "Who is this someone?"

"His name was... I... I can't remember. Dean? Dean, I think."

He looked over his shoulder slowly. "Dean what?"

"Something with a W. Weatherby, Weasley? Wincest... Hang on."

I thought hard for a few seconds. "Winchester! Dean Winchester."

He turned quickly, his eyes wide. "Let's go. Now."

When we made our way up to the rooftop, I didn't understand why he wanted to stay hidden in the shadows of tree. He wouldn't explain, and I wasn't going to make him. Like I said, those eyes. They are very intimidating. People started to make their way up to the rooftop. Dean and his partner were the last to arrive.

"Right," he said. "Let's all say hello to each other, and then we'll start. I'm Dean Winchester, and this-" he gestured towards the girl - "is Ruby Saga. By the way, what happened to seven?"

Ruby shrugged. "They didn't want in. Didn't trust us."

He rolled his eyes and turned back to us. "Right, so. Ginger and husband. Who are you guys?"

The ginger spoke for them both. "I'm Amelia Pond. Amy. This is Rory Williams."

I noticed, as she spoke, that their hands were tightly intertwined.

Dean nodded, and turned to me.

"I'm... Rose. Rose Tyler."

"Where's your other district partner? No show?"

"No, he's here, but he's a bit shy, I think."

Dean raised an eyebrow.

"No sense in being shy right now. Either he's in, and we trust each other, or he's out."

I turned to the shadows, as my district partner stepped out. When I looked back at Dean, he looked... Shocked? Surprised? Angry? Sad? Happy? I can't even begin to describe it.

"Hello, Dean." he said.

Dean broke out of his trance, and cleared his throat. "Right, so uh... This is Cas. Castiel, I mean. Castiel Novak." He clapped his hands. "So. Down to business."

Yet as he was explaining, I noticed that his eyes were trained on Castiel most of the time.


	2. Chapter 2

-Rose-

The day before the games began, I was feeling extremely shaken. Castiel and I were told to get away from the Cornucopia as fast as we could, but what if someone caught me? What if I was killed? What if he was?

I left a hand touch my shoulder and nearly jumped half a mile. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, fine." I answered.

He sat down beside me. "You don't look like it."

"Right, okay. Well. I just agreed - we just agreed last night that we would protect people from different districts, I mean, what if they're just going to backstab us? We're not exactly good fighters, you know."

He put his hand on top of mine. It wasn't a flirtatious gesture, it was just to reassure. "I would trust Dean with my life."

I shook my head. "About that. How do you know him? I mean, you seemed pretty keen on staying away from him."

"We have... History."

"What kind of history?"

He sighed. "District history. Do you remember the second war, when the families were divided up over time?"

"Yeah."

"We were good friends. He and his brother were the only family I had."

"Yeah, well. I can kind of relate to how that feels."

"No, I don't think you can."

"My friend... She saw something. I never knew what it was that she saw, but she saw something and the Peacekeepers had to wipe her mind. She never spoke to me again."

"I'm sorry. That must have been hard for you."

"Yeah."

"Who was she?"

"Her name was Donna. Donna Noble."

"I know her. I remember her."

"Why? How did you meet?"

"She saw me, talking to a Peacekeeper. I beat her up and killed her. They wiped Donna's mind so that she couldn't say anything about it that would cause another uprising. They tried to wipe me too, but I can't be wiped. In a way, I'm responsible for Donna's mental state. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault, Castiel. It doesn't matter right now."

"Everything always matters. No matter how little of a thing it is, every detail counts. Always keep that in mind."

-Dean-

Tick tock goes the clock for stupid Dean Winchester.

As I ascended the tube, I noticed how strange the arena looked. With the shiny white walls, it looked more like a hotel lobby than anything. I looked around at everyone in the tubes. Now was not the time to let my nerves get the better of me.

The tubes opened, and I sprinted out. I made my way directly to the biggest backpacks. Ruby was hot on my tail.

We were the first ones to reach the centre of the Cornucopia and acquire weapons. I picked up a few throwing axes, chucking them at people who were getting too close to Ruby. One boy stared to sneak up on her, but my axe met his back with a sickening crunch.

The place was complete chaos as people fought for their lives, hacking and slashing at each other's bodies, blood spurting out of open wounds, decorating the walls in splatter-painting fashions. After slitting someone's throat, I gathered as many packs as I could, gestured for Ruby to follow me, and we and ran off to find Rose, Cas, Amy and Rory. We were barely touched. There was a small gash in my face, and Ruby's arm was bleeding.

I was right about one thing - the arena was definitely a hotel. It had so many corridors to run down, I was so relieved when I found our group.

We split the gear that we gathered. I wielded a few throwing knives. Ruby had a dagger with a serrated edge, Rose took a sickle, and Amy and Rory both took old-style katanas. Cas decided that he would be fine without a weapon - he was quick on his feet.

As we were dividing the weapons and backpacks, we all heard the cannon go off. I counted eight times. It was surprising to me that half the opposition wasn't dead yet.

"Right," I said. "We should set up base at the Cornucopi-"

I turned. The wall was blocked.

Cas spoke. "I think that this arena is going to be changing. It's wisest to stick together."

"Hold on," said Rory, examining a tag on one of the hotel rooms. "This room... It's got my name on it."

"Ignore it," said Ruby. "Let's go."

Rory opened the door and stepped inside. "Why does it have my name on it?"

Amy followed him, and the door slammed shut in Rose's face. I shoved my way forward, banging on the door. "Amy, Rory! Open the door right now!"

Surprisingly, the door swung open. "It's just more hallways, mate." said Rory calmly.

Just as I was about to tell him off for making hasty decisions, Cas stepped up and shoved him against the wall.

"Stick together," he growled. "Being separated only makes it easier to kill us." He pulled back, still staring daggers at him.

Ruby cleared her throat. "Let's sleep on it. It's getting late, I can tell."

"And how do you know that?" asked Amy and Rose at the same time.

"Because," she said. "It's getting really, really cold, and dark."

As she said it, the lights dimmed and the walls started to freeze in intricate patterns of ice. Our breaths were pulses of hot air against the cold. I understood why we had sleeping bags for winter in the knapsacks now.

"We should all sleep in the same room. These things can cut off and separate like butter, it would be safest." said Rose.

Everyone murmured in agreement, except for Cas, who only nodded.

The TV in the room suddenly turned on. On it flashed the faces of people who'd died in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia.

When it switched off, Cas broke the silence. "Dean and I will take first watch," he said, giving me a look.

While the others slept, Cas and I kept guard.

"It's been a long time," I said quietly.

"Yes," he said.

"So how have you been holding up?" I asked.

"Badly. You know about my father. Missing, still. My mother's gone mad. She's pulled a knife on me a few times."

"I'm... Sorry."

He furrowed his brow, not looking at me. "All lives screw up, all hearts are broken. In the end, caring is not an advantage."

"You haven't changed a bit."

"No."

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"How have you been, Dean?" he asked.

"Ah, same old. Mum's gone, Dad's forgotten us, and Sammy's all alone now that I'm here."

"Sam will be fine. If nothing goes to plan, I'd bet that you would be the one out of this... This God complex... alive."

"Don't say that, Cas. I don't want to hurt innocent people if I can help it."

"I know, Dean. Not many people do. But we don't really have a choice. We're dolls in a house, here."

"I know. But still. I just feel like I shouldn't be here. Like something's gone wrong, there's somewhere else I should be."

"We all feel that way at some point."

"Do you?"

He looked at me and nodded. "Right now, it's like something's gone wrong. It feels like time has gone wibbly wobbly or something."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wibbly wobbly? Cas, did you find another liquor store to drink in this place or something?"

"No. I mean it, though. Something here is terribly wrong, and it's not just killing innocents."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Such a strange feeling. But we are just human, after all."

"I take a hearty dislike to humans."

I stared at him, and he stared back. "Cas, you okay?"

He gestured for me to come closer. "Don't ask stupid questions." he whispered.

I leaned out. "Right, okay then. I'll take that as a no."

The next morning, we decided that we should get our food situation under control. This arena was obviously much cleaner than the usual wilderness, but it would be easy to starve if we didn't have enough.

"So where would be a good place to get food?" asked Rory. "There aren't exactly any berries or herbs in here."

"Oi, stupid face. You could always snack on potted plants," said Amy, rolling her eyes.

Ruby tried to stifle a giggle.

"Sponsors wouldn't help anyhow," said Cas. "We're indoors. The parachutes would land on the roof."

"Well crap," I said. "So I suppose that this map doesn't have a food source." I looked up at the ceiling. "Talk about flawed design!"

"I think you're all missing the obvious," said Rose hesitantly.

"Do tell," said Ruby, mocking her.

"Ruby, stop being a bitch," I muttered.

"Yeah, just rain on my parade," she muttered back, but she shut up. I gestured to Rose for her to continue.

"Well, if we're saying that this is a hotel, then maybe there's a kitchen."

Realization dawned on all of us, as we realized how stupid we'd been.

"So now, the question is..."

"Where is it?" finished Cas.

We walked around, searching for it. When we found it, we were all frustrated because-

"It's locked. Of all place that the kitchen could be, the most likely place is locked," groaned Ruby.

I threw up my hands in exasperation. "So what now?"

Rory pushed on the door, and it swung open. "I thought you said it was locked."

"It was locked," said Rose. "Somebody up there likes us."

Ruby held the door open and gestures for us to go in. She winked at me as I passed, and breathed, "Believe me. No one up there likes you."

We were relieved to find that it was indeed the kitchen. We stuffed our bags to the brim with canned foods and bottle of water.

"Are we all done here?" I called. "Good. Let's go."

We walked to the door, ready to leave, when it slammed shut in our faces and the lights dimmed.

"Let's just set up here," said Ruby. "Dean and Rose can take first watch."

The holograms of the dead flashed in our faces, as everyone unrolled their sleeping bags and lay down.

"Is everybody asleep?" she asked me after a little bit.

I looked at them. "I think so."

"Can I trust you, Dean?"

"Yes, you can...?"

"It's just..." she sighed. "I'm so scared of everything. Every minute I spend with all of you, I feel like I'm someone that's just going to be feasted on, and that I hold you back."

I took her hand. "Rose, no. If anybody ever hurt you, I would rip them to pieces."

"Why? We aren't from the same district, we don't have much in common, and we don't share any kind of bond."

"Because," I said. "You've never wronged anyone. You're an innocent girl, and I hate it when innocents die."

"You sound like you're talking from experience. Not hunger games experience, but actual killed-in-crossfire experience."

"That doesn't make sense; I've never dealt with that before."

"In some other life, you have."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know."

"Okay, then."

"There is something that I do know..." she said.

"What?"

"There's you, and there's me, together in a dark room where no one can see."

"And...?"

"Anything could happen."

She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. I was taken aback by her boldness, but I started to relax into her offer.

"Sorry," she breathed. "We shouldn't be doing that."

"No, it's okay. You're a good kisser," I teased.

The lights flickered back on, and I stood. Apparently, night time duration varied.

"Rise and shine, sleepyheads. Up, up we get. Day to survive ahead of us here, no time for dawdl-"

Cas sprang up and covered my mouth with his hand. He cocked his ear to the side. "Did you hear that?" he whispered, taking his hand off my face. We listened intensively.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

We all looked at each other. "Person," we mouthed.

"Amy, Rory, Rose, get behind us," I hissed.

The entire room began to shake. Glass jars rattled on their shelves. "What's going on?" I shouted above the noise.

"The floor! It's cracking!" shouted Rose.

"The room must be splitting!" called Ruby. She threw her knife over to Cas and I tossed her a few backpacks. From what we could tell, we had a minute before our enemies caught us. The footsteps were close now.

"We'll catch up with you later!" I yelled. They turned and ran as a wall materialized on top of the crack.

The door swung open with a bang. I recognized the girl - I'd seen her training at hand-to-hand combat. She had long, frizzy, blond hair and green eyes. Something told me that she was from District 1.

I pulled out a knife and turned to Cas, but he'd vanished.

"Hello, sweetie." said the girl. She pounced onto me, swiping my knife aside.

I had basic training in blocking, but it wasn't enough. She was beating me up in every way possible, punching my in the stomach repeatedly, slamming me against the wall. When I couldn't move any longer, she pulled out a box cutter, swung her arm back-

And froze. We both looked at the dagger protruding from her neck. Cas pulled Ruby's knife out, and the girl slumped lifelessly to the ground as the cannon sounded. "Guess this thing isn't useless after all."

I groaned. "Bit late, don't you think, Cas?"

"No. You're not dead. Are you alright?"

I pulled myself off the wall. "Yeah, fine. Let's loot the body and then go find the others."

The girl wasn't carrying much. Cas ended up taking her trench coat. "Little shelter is better than no shelter," he said.

When we stepped outside, the setting was entirely different.

"This is a garden." I said. "Why are we in a garden? Are we even still in the arena? I mean, there's open sky here."

"Come on," said Cas. "This place is surrounded by the building; we'll find another door eventually. It's better than inside."

We wandered into the greenery, when the sky suddenly became dark. A hologram flashed in front of us, broadcasting the deaths of the day. Amy, Rory, and Rose were among the faces.

After the images dissolved, I kept staring at the sky. They never deserved to die. None of them. We really should have stuck together.

Cas put a hand on my shoulder - I'd almost forgotten that he was even there. "Rest," he said. "You look like you need it."

I started to protest, but he put a finger on my forehead, and my knees buckled. As Cas helped me to lie down, I was hit by a memory of us when we were just kids, and he could send me to sleep just by tapping my head.

"I miss the old days," I said sleepily. Just as I tumbled into the darkness, I felt something smooth my hair back.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dean? Dean, wake up."

I rubbed my eyes groggily. "What? Where am I?" I asked.

As my vision came back into focus, I saw that Cas was sitting in front of me, offering me a bottle of water.

"Thanks," I grunted, taking the bottle.

"You're welcome."

I took a swig of the water, capped it, and handed it back to him.

"So, we have food, water, and a sleeping bag?" I asked.

"Yes. I sincerely hope that hamburgers won't spoil fast in a hotel."

"They probably won't. What else do we have?"

"Not much," he said. "We should be on a lookout for medical supplies if possible, but other than that, we should just try to stay alive and get back to the group."

"Sounds like a plan."

I saw something flutter out of the corner of my eye. A red flag, kind of like a fish. I walked toward it, mesmerized. Why was there a fish flag in a garden?

"Cas, come and see this."

No response.

"Cas?" I called, turning around. He wasn't there.

"Cas, c'mon man. I don't care what they call it, this isn't a game."

"Cas? Where are you?"

"Dean!" someone shouted. "Dean, help me, help me, help-"

"Sammy?" I yelled, running toward the sound of his voice. "Sam!"

I came to a large gazebo. In the distance, I could see a body lying on the ground.

He was flopped face down in a pool of blood. I turned him over, and his black eyes were undeniably lifeless.

"Sam?"

"Dean! What was that?" came a voice from behind me. I spun around, and there stood Cas. "You want to explain to me why you were speeding away from me top speed, screaming Sam's name?"

I looked back at the corpse, but it wasn't there. "What the hell...?"

"I should be asking that." He raised his eyebrow, staring at me quizzically. "Probably just some way for the game makers to try and separate us."

"Yeah, that's never going to happen."

We walked away from the gazebo, into a maze of tall, neatly trimmed hedges.

"You know what? I think that something scared you beyond belief." said Cas, matter of factly.

"Yeah, well. You guessed right."

"What was it?"

"It was Sam."

"Yes."

"He was..."

"Dead?"

I nodded, feeling my eyes grow a little bit misty. I wouldn't let Cas see me cry. Not now, not ever.

"I would never admit it, Cas, but I was scared out of my mind. I lost Mom and I lost Dad. All I have at home is a little brother, and I just..."

I took a deep breath. "I was talking to Rose last night while we were patrolling. She had a family to go back to. She had a little brother and her mom and her dad. But me? It's just me and Sammy. What would happen to him if I died? What would happen to me if he died?"

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"No. I know that Sam's safe at home. I know that there's no reason to worry."

"Dean."

"Cas, there's just no one else that cares about me. If Sam were gone, I'd... I don't know what I'd do, but dying would be something-"

He shoved me against the hedge and pressed his lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in closer. He was like fire and ice at the same time, burning with furious passion. Suddenly, everything felt right and we were the only ones in the universe. When we finally pulled apart, we breathed hard, but I felt like I didn't have enough. A kind of uncontrollable lust had taken over my mind as this time. I whipped us around so that he was now in the shrubbery. I kissed him ferociously. Cas's arms were grabbing onto the branches as he supported himself.

"Don't you dare talk about giving yourself up, Dean. Don't do that to me, because there's still me."

I stepped back so that he could peel himself off the hedges. And awkward silence settled between us, as we shifted our eyes, refusing to look at each other. I could feel my cheeks burning.

"We should, uh..." I Cleared my throat and gestured toward the maze. "We should get a move on."

"Yes."

We searched and searched for Ruby, but as the days passed and more deaths lit up the night sky, I thought that maybe she'd turned her back on us and that perhaps it wasn't a smart idea to try to find her.

"So what do you remember from District 2?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

He looked at me and sighed. "I remember enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I remember you and Sam. You took care of me. We were such good friends."

"Yeah, we were."

We continued in silence.

"Did you ever want to come back, Cas?"

"Truthfully? Yes."

"Do you miss us?"

He stopped walking. "What's with all of the questions?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing. Just, y'know. Making small talk."

"Cas?" came a female voice.

We spun around, Cas gripping the dagger tightly. But he lowered the knife when he saw who it was.

"Meg?" he asked, hesitantly.

"The one and only," she replied, grinning. She leaped forward and tackled him, covering his face with kisses. Then, she pulled back and moved toward me. She stuck out her hand. "Meg Masters. Same thing happened to me that happened to Cas."

I took her hand. "You got moved from District 9?"

"Yeah, to District 3. Cas and I have been /friends/ for a long time."

I didn't like the emphasis that she put on the word "friends".

"Well that's... Good to hear."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cas giving her a strange look, but I shrugged it off. "Such misfortune that you were picked, huh. To be fighting against your friend."

"Yes!"

She took Cas's hand. "Come on, we should get back into the building. Follow me!"

As Meg chattered on, I fell silent behind them. I was the third wheel - now I understood how Sammy felt when I talked to Cas. Left out.

By the time night came, Meg had found us a room. It was a hotel, after all.

"I'll take first shift," she said. "You two get some sleep," she said. The names of the dead flashed in our faces. "You're going to need it."

She leaned down on top of Cas and kissed him. "Goodnight, darling."

"Want me to give you a boost to la la land, Dean?" asked Cas.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." I muttered. He touched his finger to my head, and I felt everything sink to a restful halt.


	4. Chapter 4

I wearily opened my eyes, and tried to move my arms to rub them, but I couldn't. I looked down. My arms and legs were duct taped to the wall, and I was gagged. "Don't even think about trying to make a sound," said Meg. "Or I'll kill Castiel."

She had an embalming tool, and was holding it just above Cas's neck. He was bloody, and he didn't look very much alive. The whole front of his shirt was shredded and covered in blood. "Cas," I whispered.

She stood up. And walked over to me. "You and Castiel, both of you. You pretend to be such big bad wolves, when really you're just hopeless romantics. You'd be so perfect for each other."

She smiled endearingly. "So. Let's get started." She slid the knife down my arm. I gave a muffled groan at the pain. I struggled to break free, but it was no use. "Dean, Dean! Shame on you! Don't you know that the more you struggle, the faster you bleed out?"

She dragged the knife back across my arm and none too lightly across my chest. I tried to scream Cas's name over and over to wake up and save himself, but it was no use. He wouldn't wake.

"I'm going to take your gag off now. If you make a sound, I'll stab you in the heart without hesitation."

She cut away the fabric, and I panted hard, relieved that at least I could take in more air.

"What did you do to Cas?" I growled, trying to pull away from the wall.

"I'll be conducting the interview here, Dean-o," she said in a sing-song voice. "But for your information, I don't think he'll live. Two stabs in the chest, one in the stomach, chances of survival are pretty low, don'tcha think? He's still alive, of course. I wouldn't kill him without letting you see. I'd say he has... Oh... Two minutes."

I was going to murder her ass and stick her into a meat grinder.

"So tell me. This alliance of yours-"

"How do you know about that?" I asked hoarsely.

She stabbed the embalming tool into my arm, and I bit back a scream of pain with great difficulty. "Don't interrupt me, pretty boy. This alliance of yours. What did you even hope to accomplish? Maybe that just this once, everybody lives?"

"Go to hell, bitch," I spat, and she punched me in face.

"What kind of alliance is that, anyway? Two lover idiots, a blonde chick and a backstabber?"

I thrust my head forward and spat in her face.

_Thump_

If I'd seen the look of shock on my face, I probably would have laughed. Meg's head rolled into the closet as her body bled out, and the cannon sounded.

I closed my eyes as Ruby cut away the tape on my arms and legs. I felt dizzy and nauseated. Blood pooled on the floor and on the walls.

I sank to my knees, unable to stand any longer. "Dean." said Ruby. "Lie down, I'm going to gauze you up."

Heaven knows where she found a first aid kit, but I tried to bat her away. "Leave me... Leave me, help Cas, get Cas away..."

My vision blurred and I felt so heavy. I couldn't get up to help drag Cas out of this room.

Ruby leaned over me. "Cas is going to be fine." she closed my eyelids and I spiraled into darkness.

-Castiel-

"Ruby," I yelled at her. "He's waking up."

I was still feeling drowsy from the sedative that Meg had given me. I would have stabbed her straight through the chest if I were awake. To think that Dean was being tortured while I was sleeping... The thought made my heart skydive in guilt.

"I can see why Dean was so worried," Ruby had commented when I woke up. "She must have used at least two pints on your chest. There was a hospital room down the hall that I raided for these -" she held up the bandages - "And I assume that Meg got there before finding you two. Creative little demon."

"Cas!" shouted Dean, writhing around. "No, please! No!"

I knelt down on the floor beside him, and shook him gently. His eyes fluttered open, and he blinked a few times. "Cas?"

He tried to get up, but he fell flat on his face.

"Dean. Take it easy."

I helped him sit up, and propped up a leg behind his back to support him.

"Cas." He muttered. Then, as if he were seeing me the first time, he exclaimed, "Cas!" He broke into a huge coughing fit.

I smiled - something that I hadn't done for a very long time. He was adorable. "Hello, Dean."

"How are you even alive?" his voice was barely a whisper. "Meg stabbed you three times in the chest."

My smile faded as I lifted my shirt for him to see that there were no stab wounds, no dents at all. "Sedatives and blood bags," I replied. "The cloth from my shirt was all torn up; it would have looked like she carved my chest like a turkey from your angle."

He took a breath, as if to say something, but started coughing instead. Ruby walked over and handed him a bottle of water. He tried to push it away, protesting that he didn't want to waste water. "Shut up and drink it," said Ruby.

He took a big swig. His voice was gravely, but he sounded much better. "You're okay, Cas?"

"She didn't lay a finger on me."

He gulped down more water. "Who was she, really? Meg. Not some girlfriend from District 9."

I looked away. "No. Not a girlfriend. A frenemy, if you will, but never a girlfriend. I've never had a girlfriend."

Dean started hacking with laughter.

"Right... Anyway, Meg was a friend of a nemesis. When she kissed me, I thought that she'd changed her ways. Obviously, I was wrong."

"Dude." Dean tried to sit up a bit straighter, wincing in pain. "She smothered you with her lips. Didn't you think that maybe she was manipulating you?"

I glared at the bloodstained walls. "It's the hunger games, Dean. We need all the help we can get."

"This entire thing wouldn't have happened if we hadn't separated," snarled Ruby.

I stalked up to her. "Are you saying that all of this was Dean's fault?"

"We've been waiting a while for him to get his sorry ass up and move. He's a burden, Castiel. To both of us."

"Just a second ago, you gave Dean a bottle of water to drink."

"Yeah and now I'm done. Just let him die. Believe me, it'll be so much easier for the both of you."

I pushed her back and threw a backpack at her. She caught it, slung in around her shoulders, and walked away. "I warned you," she said.

"Whoa, whoa wait." said Dean when she was gone. "How long was I out?"

I sighed. "A long time. Ruby started to think that you weren't going to wake up. Meg did a number on you. Even when we were putting the stitches on your wounds-"

"Hold on. You said that Ruby thought that I wasn't going to wake up."

"Yes."

"And what about you?"

"Yes."

Dean nodded. "No, hang on, is that a 'yes, I was going to wake up' or 'yes, I didn't think you were going to wake up'?"

"Yes."

He sighed. "So how long?"

"I counted three days. Ruby counted four."

"You two can't agree on anything, can you?"

"No."

Dean took another gulp of water. "I think I can stand now."

I helped him up. "You're absolutely fine, Cas?" he asked again.

"Fine, yes."

I packed the first aid kit. We had no sleeping bags, and no food, but we had water and bandages, so that was good.

"Cas," said Dean.

"Yes?" I replied, continuing to fill the white box.

"Cas," he repeated, his voice a strangled whisper.

I spun to look at him. He was kneeling on the ground and clutching his abdomen. I rushed over to him. "Dean, what's...?"

Then, I saw the water that Ruby had handed to him.

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed, angrily. I grabbed Dean's shoulders and shook him. "Dean, talk to me."

"She did something the water, didn't she?" he gasped.

"Yes, but you're going to be alright. I think."

"Cas, I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"I don't know. Let me think."

"Cas! Am I going to die?"

"You can't just die. You're not going to die."

He groaned in pain. "Yes I am, Cas. Even on my deathbed, I can tell when you're lying. If it's my last chance to say it... Castiel Novak, I..."

He slumped forward onto my shoulder.

I held him tightly, taking deep breaths, trying not to sob into his shoulder. Ruby, the bitch. I'd always known that Dean wouldn't listen to me.

"Dammit Dean," I breathed into his ear. "Wake up."

I kissed his forehead gently, when I started to realize that the arena was falling around me. No, not falling - dissolving. The walls were dissolving into nothing, leaving the two of us in an old fashioned torture chamber.

"Well done," came a voice from behind me.

I turned my head. "Ruby?" I asked hesitantly. "You want to explain to me what the hell this is all about?"

She walked towards me, kneeling down beside me. "All in due time."

"What does that mean?"

She turned my head towards her. "Tell me, Castiel. Have you ever done drugs?"

I furrowed my brow. "No. Why?"

"Because." I felt something stab my shoulder. "Most people would be out by now."

I started to feel woozy and I blinked several times, feeling my entire body go numb. I must have been unconscious before I even hit the ground.

-Dean-

When I woke up, I found myself chained to an operating table. I had a strong sense of déja vu - it was from when Meg taped me to the wall.

Dammit, I thought. I looked up, and there was Cas. I strongly suspected that we were basically mirror images. Shirtless, beat up, and chained. I could feel that the bandages had been removed, and the stitches had been cut.

"Cas?" I whispered.

He looked up, his face ashen from the dust and tears. "Dean. I thought you were dead."

"Yeah, well apparently not. Dude, what the hell happened?"

"I happened!" sang a voice from across the room.

"Ruby," I spat.

"I was known as Jim when before I regenerated. Jim Moriarty. Or more commonly known as, the Master. I was a guy."

"You talk about regeneration," said Cas.

"I'm a... Well. You could call me a half-breed, but I find that term insulting. I'm part timelord, part dreamlord. Part... Oh I don't know. It doesn't matter."

"What happened to everybody else?" I shot at her. "Rose, Amy, Rory? The other tributes?"

"Only the ones that crossed your path were real," she said, grinning. "Your little group of pathetic idiots was real, and Castiel is real."

"How did they really die?" asked Cas with contempt.

"Oh, I slaughtered Amy and Rory like lamb, they were so easy. Two cuts, right across their necks. Poor Rose, well she had a different story. I gutted her like a fish. She tried to kill me, but..." she sighed dramatically. "These are my games. I don't die in them."

"What do you mean your games?"

"I created this whole fantasy around you. The hunger games never existed, MORON!" she yelled. "This whole thing was set up by me. I pulled a few people out of the real world to be your allies. They all travelled with a nemesis of mine, in another reality. Haven't you realized how strange these games were, idiots? Why would the Capitol let people scheme before the games? Didn't you notice that there was no celebration? No eyebrow plucking or modification of your bodies to make you look good? How about the interviews? None of that? No sponsors? And the arena? For Hell's sake, you two are such imbeciles, it hurts! Why would anyone build an arena in a hotel and a pretty garden? I based this very loosely off a book! This is just another one of your dreams. Don't you remember? Ruby is dead! You and Sam killed her after she helped unleash Lucifer. I'm not even from your PLANET, and I know."

"Oh, so now you're some kind of religious, insane, freak. There's no such thing as Lucifer, and if there was, how would it even be possible for humans to unleash Satan, you stupid bitch?"

"Your brother started it. He drank demon blood for months. Such an addiction it was, too. He went insane for it, it was literally a drug. He walked out on you."

I banged my arm against the metal, resulting is a large clanging sound. "You shut up about my brother! He would never turn his back on me!"

She mocked surprise. "Temper, temper, Dean! Gosh."

I took a few breaths to calm myself down. "What did you put in that water?" I demanded.

"Slow acting sedative. Just before you go out, causes extreme pain. People usually think that they're dying. I see that both of you aren't any different."

"Go to hell," snarled Cas.

She sauntered toward him, dragging her hand down his naked chest. "And poor Cas, the unexpecting lover boy... Uncomfortable around people, aren't you?" she kissed him on the cheek.

"Get away from me," he hissed.

She pushed off of him and turned to me. She stepped to the left so that I could get a clear view of him, and put two fingers on my neck.

"Listen to that pulse, Dean. I can feel it. You like what you see, don't you? He's a bloody angel. Well, not bloody. Not yet."

She walked over to a nearby table, filled with all kinds of torture tools, as I struggled against the chains. She picked up a sharp butcher knife.

"Don't touch him!" I cried.

She strutted over to Cas, teasing him lightly with the knife, dragging it across his arm.

"This knife isn't for you, pretty boy." she said.

Cas and I looked at each other. By the time we realized what she meant, his bright blue eyes were brimming with terror, and I was letting out cries of anguish. She reopened all of the wounds that Meg gave me, creating new ones. She dragged the knife across my abdomen.

"Those cuts aren't that deep, Dean," she said earnestly, while slicing away. "I want you to watch without any chance of dying any time soon to see what I'm going to do to Cas."

"Don't hurt Cas," I gasped as the metal made its way across my palms. "Don't lay a finger on him, don't you dare make him bleed."

Ruby paid no attention to me. She returned to the table, this time picking up a dull knife.

"Do you know why I'm choosing this, Dean?" she asked, sneering.

"Don't you dare-"

"How much did the butcher knife hurt, Dean?"

I spat in her face, and she slapped me. Hard.

"It didn't hurt enough. That's the point, Dean. You want to mess someone up? Use a dull knife. Sure, it's going to take a lot more effort, but it's not going to cut. It's going to ri-i-i-i-ip. It'll be painful. And when he survives, the healing process will be a lot harder to go through. A sharp knife is like a nice guy tool. I've already won, so I'm going for something to represent victory."

"Ruby, please," I begged. "Don't hurt him. Don't hurt Cas, hurt me. You can do whatever you want to me. I don't care if you cut my heart out and make me watch it stop beating, just don't... Don't..."

She smiled. "Do you really want that? Would you really do that for your friend, Dean?"

"In a heartbeat, yes, please, don't hurt Cas..."

"Well in that case..."

She whipped around and stabbed Cas in the shoulder, dragging the knife down to his hip. The scream that he let out was inhumane, the atmosphere filled with Cas's screams of agony, my desperate pleading, and the constant ripping noises as his skin gave way. The noises were horrible as I heard her gutting and carving and tearing.

When Ruby finally stepped back, they were both panting. I could see everything that Ruby had done in his eyes.

He looked terrible. His chest was smeared in blood, as it dribbled out of the torn flesh.

Ruby held up a small plastic bucket filled with what smelled like rubbing alcohol. She tipped it down my chest. The burning sensation was terrible, but I tried to keep in the pain just to encourage her to keep at it with me. My plan failed. As soon as she'd emptied the bucket onto my skin, he pulled out an even bigger metal pail.

"Watch this, Dean." she said, happily.

She heaved the bucket back and splashed it all onto Cas's chest. He screamed again and again, unable to suppress each cry as the alcohol bubbled enthusiastically into his wounds, as Ruby howled with laughter. Eventually, his screams died away, and he hung there, like a ragdoll, passed out because he couldn't take any more.

Ruby looked at him, then back at me. "I don't care about whether or not he's dead," she said, grinning. "All I know is that my job here is done. I caused him excruciating pain. He'll feel it when he gets back." She released Cas's chains, and he fell limply to the ground.

"Your chains are releasing in... Oh, a minute. Enough time for me to get away. Say goodbye to Castiel for me, won't you?"

She skipped out of the room. As soon as the chains fell, I crawled over to Cas, my cuts becoming dirty from the grime on the floor, and turned him over. The wounds were horrible - part of his ribcage was exposed, and the forces of the knife had clearly crushed a few ribs. Blood was still pouring out of the gashes like a waterfall. I could tell that Ruby had punched his face a few times as well when I wasn't looking, as blood dribbled down the side of his mouth. I was so scared - I didn't want to move him.

He opened an eye. The unexpected gesture made me gasp. Somehow, Cas pulled himself into a sitting position. "You look horrible," he commented, as if nothing had happened.

"So do you."

He reached over and tapped me on the head. As I went out, I heard him say, "Nice to feel my wings again."


	5. Chapter 5

-Castiel-

I stood up and searched the cupboards, finding some cloth to bandage Dean's injuries. My own torso was still in terrible shape, but as of now, only he mattered to me. I couldn't die from these wounds anyhow - back in the real world, they would heal. I washed off the blood and used what was left of the alcohol to clean the cuts. I wrapped him in the cloth, adding more and more as he bled through, just as I was about to leave, I noticed my usual attire draped over a chair. Heaven knows why it was there, but I grabbed it on my way out. I flew us both to the Impala, back to the real world, where I wasn't disappointed when I expected to see Sam.

"Cas, what...?" he asked with a horrified expression.

"Name of the motel."

"Um... Sandcastle, room 394, but-"

I put a hand on his shoulder and transported us to their motel room.

"What the hell happened to you two?" he demanded. "You've been gone for weeks, and you come back looking like you've been to Hell and back!"

"Ruby happened to us," I answered. "She sent us to a different universe, and when she brought us back, this is what she did."

"Ruby did this...? But... She's dead."

I wetted a towel and mopped up the blood on my chest.

"Someone called the Master took her form and set us up. Kind of like a shape shifter, but this thing will usually change form only on its deathbed. It's called regenerating - every cell in the body is replaced. New body, new habits, new personality. I say Ruby because it looked like her, but I don't know how it was able to be so specific about choosing its form. Usually, the one regenerating doesn't have a say in how it turns out in the end. I remember my friend wanted to be ginger, but it hasn't happened yet."

I pulled on my shirt and trench coat, and attempted to tie my tie.

"I can't heal Dean, I only just got my power back. He'll be fine, but he won't be hunting for a while," I said.

"What?"

"You also might never see me again."

"Why?"

"I'm going to go take on the Master, or die trying. But before I go..."

I put my hands on both their heads. Sam flinched in pain. "Ow," he grumbled. "What the hell was that for?"

"It's a number," I replied. "If I don't make it back, you're going to have to have some assistance to take down Ruby. She's not a demon, or anything of the supernatural, she's an alien of some sorts. She took my wings and tricked me into think that I was mortal, Sam. I know that it's not your style to ask for help, but she's different. You wouldn't stand a chance against her. She fooled an angel of the Lord into believing that he was human. That isn't normal."

I searched their suitcases, pulling out a random one of their phones and replacing the battery.

"Cas... This is Martha Jones' number. Dean and her, they never really worked out. She's married now."

"It's not her number anymore. Call using this phone and this phone only. I've made it a sort of super phone. Trust me, he'll come. When he does, don't bring any guns. He's got a strange method of transportation, and his console has been shot before. When he tells you to get into the box, get into the box."

"Cas, what...?"

I straightened up to leave. "Sam, you've been like a brother to me. And Dean... I do wish that he and I were something more. Goodbye Sam. Chances are good that you'll never see me again."

Just as I was about to fly away, I added, "Oh, and... Tell Dean that I'm sorry."

With that, I left them, in search of the Master.

-Sam-

"What do you mean he's just gone?" yelled Dean, angrily.

It's been three days, and Dean had only just regained consciousness. He hasn't been able to get up at all. He's propped up in bed with a scratched face and marred arms.

"He said that he was off to find Ruby and kill her," I replied.

"Why couldn't we come along? Frickin' angels and their stupid, sucky goodbyes."

"Dean, have you even looked at yourself in a mirror?"

"I'm fine, Sam."

"You've got bandages surrounding your chest. You needed stitches, more than I'm willing to know. Dream or no dream, that arena seriously messed you up."

"It messed Cas up too! Why couldn't he just heal me and we'd be on our merry way?"

"Ruby took away his wings and power, he only just had enough angel mojo to fly. He was still practically human."

"How does that even make sense? Ruby is dead, Sam. I knifed her, and you held her there so that I could!"

I summarized what Cas had told me about how it had taken a different form.

"Come on, aliens? That's impossible."

"Would you have believed it if Cas told you?"

He sighed. "I don't know, Sammy. I didn't think that Cas would just leave us behind. Besides, why is this Ruby bitch even after us anyway?"

"I don't know. Maybe it didn't like how we killed the form it took?"

"Do we know where Cas is?"

I shook my head sadly.

Dean banged his fist on the bed and turned away, but I could see a tear trickle down his cheek. "Dammit, Cas," I heard him half-whisper.

That next evening, we decided to call the number that Cas had seared into our memories.

"Hello?" said a male voice hesitantly. "Who is this?"

"We're Sam and Dean Winchester... Can you help us?" I asked.

"Winchester, Winchester. I think I've heard that name before. How did you get this number? More importantly, how are you even calling? I'm in Barcelona right now. Not Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona the planet. Beautiful place."

Dean and I gave each other a look. "We've got a friend who's probably in trouble," I said. "His name's Castiel, he's an angel...?"

There was a clapping noise on the other end. "Ah, Castiel! He talks about you two quite a bit whenever I visit Heaven. Quite the interesting fellow, that one. Where are you? You can tell me everything once I pick you up."

"We're at the Sandcastle motel, room 394, but-"

The man disconnected. Dean, who was now able to stand, stood and hit the drywall angrily. "We don't even know who this guy is!"

"Well, Cas said that we could trust him." I replied.

As Dean was about to respond, a sudden whirring sound and strong wind forced me to back up to the wall and close my eyes. When the wind stopped and the noise died, I opened my eyes to see a man wearing a bowtie and barely any eyebrows in front of a "Police Box."

"Hello," he said. "I'm the Doctor."

He beckoned us inside, and shut the door. We froze in place, because...

"The inside is bigger than the outside," I commented just as Dean said, "The outside is smaller than the inside."

"Oh, yes. This is my time machine - spaceship thingy. It's called a TARDIS, that's T-A-R-D-I-S, time and relative dimension in space."

"Why does it look like a phone booth?" asked Dean with a frown.

"This thing blends into whichever time zone it's in. If we were in ancient Rome, it'd probably be a statue on a pedestal. One day, I visited 1963 London, and the chameleon circuit for it got jammed. I like the police box though, so I never fixed it."

I nodded slowly. "Sorry, but I thought you could help Cas?"

"Right, well. I have to find him first, where in time and space, and then we have to find out what we're up against."

Dean walked up to the dashboard (thing) and I followed him. "What was your name again?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Yeah, but doctor what?"

"Nothing. Just the Doctor."

Dean looked confused. "People just call you the Doctor?"

"That's right."

He looked at me, and I shrugged.

"So you just zoom around time in this thing? When do you ever see your family?" I asked.

The Doctor leaned against the console and sighed. "I don't have one."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a time war that destroyed my planet. I'm the last of my kind, a timelord."

"I'm sorry. We lost our mom when I was just a kid," I said. "And our dad died a few years ago saving us."

"Don't you ever get lonely?" asked Dean.

"Sometimes, I have people travel with me. Companions. They all leave in the end."

"Why would they do that? It's amazing to be in space!"

"Some leave me. Some get left behind. Some, not many, but some die."

"Oh."

There wasn't much else to say, but the Doctor broke the silence by clapping his hands again. "Anyway, what has Castiel gotten himself into this time?"

Dean and I gave a rough explanation of what Cas had told us.

"Blimey," he said when we were done. "That's horrible. Does he know what Ruby is?"

Dean looked at me. "I don't really know... Cas said something about how it could regenerate?"

"No, that's impossible."

"It can put people into dream worlds?"

"Dreamlords don't regenerate. Anything else?"

"Um... He called it 'the Master'."

The wide recognition in the Doctor's eyes made my heart patter a little bit faster in fear. "You know anything about the Master?" asked Dean.

"Know... Yes, I know him. I thought that he was killed when Gallifrey was put back into the time lock. Do you two mind giving me a little bit of time to think? You should probably sleep on it, actually. There should be some rooms two floors down."

I nodded, and Dean and I walked down to our rooms.

"You think he can really help us find Cas?" Dean asked me. His voice was uncertain and filled to the brim with worry.

"Dean. You trust Cas, right?"

"Completely."

"Then don't worry about it. Cas knows more than we do."

"It's just... What if we're too late, Sammy? What if we get there and Cas is dead?"

I grabbed his shoulders. "Dean. I know you're upset, but don't be stupid. We can't be too late, we're in a time machine for God's sake! Now come on, let's get some sleep."

When I turned off the lights however, and Dean was snoring gently, I couldn't help but to think about whether or not Dean was right. What if Cas really was dead?


	6. Chapter 6

When we woke up, we went back up to the main control room.

"Right!" exclaimed the Doctor as we entered. "I know why the Master was after Castiel."

"Why's that?" asked Dean, crossing his arms.

"Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes and his partner John Watson?"

"Yes," I said as Dean said "No."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, Dean! Don't tell me that you've never been on The Science of Deduction. Sherlock Holmes is amazing! Or at least, he was. He died a little while back. Jumped off a hospital building because apparently he made up this villain named Jim Moriarty, and the press found out."

"Yes, that's right!" said the Doctor. "But Moriarty was real, and Sherlock is alive. Your friend, Castiel, saved him."

I turned to Dean. "Didn't you say that the Master used Jim Moriarty as an alias?"

Dean nodded. He turned to the Doctor. "So the Master is all worked up now because Cas did a kill-steal?"

"Basically, yes. Now, I just have to locate him and the Master-"

_Bang_

"What was that?" asked Dean.

The phone rang. "Hello?" answered the Doctor, picking it up. "What!?"

He sprinted up to the doors and spun around, giving us an uncertain smile. "I don't believe that we have to find Castiel."

As the doors opened, Cas was hurled into the long, glass tube in the centre of the room, cracking it and making some sort of golden light pour out. He rolled down the control panel and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Dean made it over to him first, as the Doctor frantically reset the switches and levers that Cas had hit on his way down.

He looked horrible. There was a huge gash on his cheek, his trench coat was dirty and bloody, and his shirt had four holes in it, as if someone had stuck their fingers into his chest.

"Cas?" Dean asked pleadingly. "C'mon, Cas. Wake up."

I put a hand in front of Cas's face, and two fingers on his pulse. "He's alive," I said to Dean. "Doctor, you wouldn't happen to be a medical doctor, would you?"

"No, I'm not, but whatever the Master hit him with, it's changing him. Angels don't go unconscious, and they can't die unless they're killed by an archangel's blade. Let's move him down to the sofa, it'll be more comfortable when he wakes up."

A minute later, we had Cas lying face up on the soft leather. Dean sat beside him and took his hand. I didn't question the gesture.

"So what you're saying is that Cas got into a fight with the Master, and the Master hit so hard that he flew out of the planet and changed so that he's not an angel anymore?" I asked the Doctor.

"Not exactly. I can still see his wings, kind of. Don't ask," he said hastily before I could wonder how. "I'm guessing that he's still angel... But not entirely. It's kind of like when he carved the angel banishing sigil onto his vessel. He was still an angel, but he wasn't an angel. 1000 years of time and space, I've never seen anything like this."

"So what now?"

"Now, we be patient, and he tells us what he knows."

As if on cue, Cas hacked and coughed up blood, waking up. He wiped his mouth with his trench coat sleeve.

"Hello, Dean, Sam, Doctor." he said in a weak, raspy voice, before launching into another violent coughing fit. "I need food."

The Doctor flew down the stairs, coming back a minute later with a bottle of water, and a plate of fish fingers with what looked like custard.

We watched Cas down the water and dive into the fish fingers.

"Dean, angels don't eat," I whispered to him.

"I know," he whispered back.

"Do you have any more?" asked Cas, his voice stronger. "I think my vessel needs nourishment."

The Doctor came back with another bottle and another plate of fish fingers. Cas devoured that just as quickly.

"Thank you, Doctor."

"My pleasure, Castiel. Now, how in the what did you manage to bump into the Master? He was dead!"

"The Weeping Angels," said Cas. "They allied themselves with her. Half of the temporal energy they feed on it transferred to the time lock where Gallifrey is. The Master managed to break free, change its form, and go on a killing spree, I suppose. It's a girl now."

"But you can't just break free from a time lock, it doesn't work that way!" exclaimed the Doctor, frustrated.

Cas got up and stretched. Surprisingly, the food had brought him up to full strength. It was strange, but I didn't question it.

"I don't know how it happened," he said. "But we have to stop her before she kills again."

-Dean-

So Cas was alive and kicking, but half an angel. I didn't know how to take that, but I didn't care. At least he was well.

"Oh, that reminds me," he said, walking over to me. He put a hand on my head and I felt my cuts seal back up magically.

"Thanks, Cas."

"You and Sam always come first."

Back in the TARDIS, Sam had bombarded the Doctor with questions of his past and his family. The Doctor kept finding relics from his companions that he showed to Sam.

While they chatted, Cas and I were in the extra bedroom. I was taking my bandages off and ripping out the stitches, while Cas took off his shirt and trench coat and examined himself in the mirror.

"What are you looking for?" I asked, pulling on a t-shirt.

"I don't know..." he muttered, turning away from his reflection. He sat down on the bed. "Whatever the Master did is leaving me with a really strange feeling."

"What kind of feeling?"

"It really hurts. In my chest.

"Oh. Do you know what it is?"

"No idea. I-"

Suddenly, he fell forward and doubled over, clutching his chest. I dropped to the ground next to him. "Cas! What's happening?"

"I don't... Know..." he said, breathing heavily.

I waiting a little bit for him to stop spasming. I knew that there was only one thing that could kill an angel, but for all I knew, Cas wasn't entirely angel anymore.

When he finally got up, he took a deep breath. "I think I'm alright now."

I put my arms around him and hugged him. "Jesus, Cas. You scared me to death."

I pulled away and looked him in the eye. "Don't do that again," I told him.

"I won't," he replied.

It was just then that I realized how close we were in proximity. I could feel his gentle breath on my face as we looked at each other, really looked. His blue eyes were burning with a fiery intensity as they searched my own, and I found myself unable to look away.

I pulled him back toward me and kissed him. It was a surprise to him at first, but then he started to kiss me back. He slid his arms under my shirt, and I could feel him caressing my back. I ran a hand through his black hair, messy as always. I tentatively slipped my tongue in, and he opened his mouth with a low moan.

A sudden knock at the door made us spring away from each other in shock. Cas went to open it, and I turned away, my lips still burning.

"The Doctor wants to talk to us. We think we've found her," came Sam's voice.

"We'll be there in a minute," I said, walking over.

Sam closed the door behind him. I crossed the room to get my jacket, and I heard Cas say, "love."

"What?" I asked, confused.

He pulled on his shirt and trench coat. "What is love, Dean? I don't understand it."

"Cas, what do you mean?"

"How do people describe love?"

"Well," I said slowly. "It twists and turns and burns in your stomach. It makes your heart beat really fast. You hyperventilate. Your entire chest feels like it's going to cave in, and it hurts. When you're in love, it's like someone has stabbed a flower through your body. You like it, but it's horrible at the same time. And it's sad, Cas. It's such a sad thing, when you're in love. It makes you smile, and laugh, and sing, but it also makes you cry and scream because the emotional pain of it is just... Horrible. It's a horrible, wonderful thing. You drown in it."

Cas frowned. "Drowning causes death."

"Sometimes, love does too."

He sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get it."

I helped him with his tie. "That's good. You shouldn't have to be bothered by such things."

As we made our way upstairs, I couldn't help but think about what I'd just said. I had pretty much poured out my soul to Cas, and he didn't even know it.

Yeah, love does hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam, Cas, and I watched as the Doctor strolled around frantically. "When will these readings show up? I need to know the galactic coordinates of the planet in order to tell where she is!"

"Doctor," said Sam. "You told us to be patient. The result will show up eventually."

"You be patient!" he spat. "You be patient, not me. Patience is for wimps!"

Sam turned to look at me and we both tried hard not to crack up. Despite being roughly 1000 years old, the Doctor could really act like a five year old, and it was hilarious.

His monitor gave a few pings, and the Doctor dashed over, reading it with a sense of urgency. Suddenly, he stopped.

"What are you doing there?" he muttered.

"Have you found her?" Sam asked.

"She's on a planet called Dimidium Seminio, which is strange in its own right. But she's showing up on every radar, she's not doing anything to stay hidden. It seems like she..."

"Wants to be found." finished Cas. "Doctor, we should really reconsider. Perhaps she's set up a trap for us. Don't you think-"

But the Doctor was already flying around the TARDIS, hitting buttons and flicking switches. Something went wrong this time though, because the ride became even bumpier, and even holding onto a rail didn't help us being bumped around and thrown all over. When we finally landed, the TARDIS went completely dark.

"No, no, no!" cried the Doctor.

"What happened?" I demanded.

"She's dead! My TARDIS is dead!"

"Can't you fix her or something?" asked Sam. "Maybe there's a reboot or something."

"She's not a machine, Sam." Cas broke in. "She was alive, she had a heart. I'm sorry, Doctor."

The Doctor threw open the doors and marched outside. We followed him without a second thought, which was the stupidest thing that we could have done.

The ground was a mixture of dark purple and blue, the colours swirling around like half-mixed tempura paint. The sky was a reddish orange. It would be how I imagined Mars, but the colours would be reversed.

"Doctor," said Cas. "I don't think - aghh!"

He fell to the ground just like he had in the spare room, clutching at his ribcage as if he wanted to claw his heart out. We rushed over to see what was going on.

"Doctor, what's happening to Cas?" I asked. "Tell me you know what's happening!"

"Why don't you just ask me?" came a female voice over the sound of Cas's cries.

"Master," the Doctor said with contempt.

The Master smiled. "Doctor," she replied breezily.

"What the hell is going on? How did you get onto this planet?"

"I had help from a few friends."

She walked away from us. The Doctor sprinted after her, leaving Sam and I to help Cas. When his pain finally went away, we could hear the Doctor's disbelieving cries. We found them in a structured of some sort, almost like a temple. It was vast and large.

"Weeping Angels wouldn't just share temporal energy!" exclaimed the Doctor, pacing around.

The Master smiled smugly. "But they did. Now I'm your worst nightmare. Every hunter on Earth would want a piece of me right now."

She snapped her fingers. I didn't understand what that meant until I realized that I couldn't pick my feet up off the floor - they were too heavy.

The Master grinned. "It's not like I can control the gravitational pull beneath only your feet or anything. Just you three. I want to play with the angel boy, he's extremely annoying."

"No!" I shouted, struggling to break free from the ground.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. So much has happened to you! What a pity it affected your young lives. For example."

She extended an arm toward Cas, made a gripping motion, and swung upward. Cas flew onto the ceiling, leaving a huge dent.

She turned to us. "Does this ring a bell?"

She made a slicing motion across his stomach with her other hand.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block the flow of memories.

"Stop it," spat the Doctor. "Just stop it!"

She relaxed her arm, and Cas crashed onto the floor. Usually, he would get up since these things didn't hurt him, but...

"You're not completely angel either! That's okay. I can still sense your power. Weak. Very weak. You could escape, Castiel. Leave your friends to me. I won't bother you again!"

He coughed. "Go to Hell," he wheezed.

The smile dropped off of the Master's face.

"Been there already. Didn't agree with me." She made the gripping motion again, and Cas roared in agony.

"What is it that you want, Master?" asked the Doctor weakly. "I don't understand. You killed my TARDIS and sent Dean and Castiel to a dream world where they could actually be hurt? What was the point?"

She sighed. "I'm bored, Doctor. Taking over the Universe? Pah, that's only a matter of time. I'm on my last regeneration, might as well spend it well."

She walked over to me and whispered, "by the way. Humans have such good sex. They all evaporate after doing me, though."

I shoved her away from me. "You're disgusting."

She narrowed her eyes and pulled a surprisingly short archangel's blade out of her pocket. "The good thing about this thing is that it can hurt angels and humans alike." She stepped back. "Oh, and I've made this one a throwing knife! It's a bit on the heavy side, but it does work. I think I'll aim for the stomach. Slower death, more time for me to escape."

"Stop it!" cried Sam, as she swung back.

She smiled innocently at Sam. "I'm letting you live, Sammy. I didn't include you in the dream. I never meant for you to even come here. You can walk free. I'm going to be honest, I like torturing your brother and his boyfriend a lot better. You're pretty damn boring!"

She looked at him with an eyebrow quirked. He gingerly raised his foot. Then, he bolted towards her, only to come to an abrupt halt.

"Thought you would do that," she said with an air of mocking sadness.

She swung her arm back, preparing to hurl the knife at me. I glared at her, waiting for the painful impact. I wouldn't cringe away in fear.

Then, everything happened in slow motion. As the knife whizzed through the air, my sight was blocked by a flurry of jet black and light brown.

"No!" I cried, as Cas buckled in front of me. He coughed and sank to the ground.

The Master snapped her fingers and I felt myself become considerably lighter, as gravity fixed itself. I knelt next to him. "You can't die, Cas. Not here, not now. Not like this."

He didn't pay me any attention. His gaze was fixed on the Master, an ocean of loathing. He grasped the hilt of the blade and threw it back at her. It caught right in the centre of her chest.

"You shouldn't... Tell your enemy... About your regenerations," he wheezed. "Especially... Before trying... To kill them... You stupid... assbutt."

I pressed my fingers to the fountain of blood, trying to stop it from gushing out, hearing the distant sound as the Master fell to the ground.

Cas grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me close. "Dean," he whispered.

"I'm here Cas, I'm right here."

The colour drained from his face. "I... Understand it... Now."

"Understand what, Cas?"

His hand slackened and he fell forward limply.

"Doctor!" I shouted. There had to be something in the TARDIS that could save Cas.

Sam, who I'd just noticed was standing next to me, said, "I don't think we can rescue him."

I rolled his body over. As I did, it started to shimmer in a brilliant white light.

"Don't watch!" cried the Doctor, and I felt Sam drag me back and slap a hand around my eyes. We were engulfed in a blazing hot sensation. When Sam finally removed his hand, Cas had two wing shaped scorch marks on either side of him and his eyes were staring upward unseeingly, dark red pooling around him.

I tried to run forward to him as I cried out his name, but Sam held me back.

"There's nothing that you can do, Dean." he said quietly.

A golden light bathed us all. Suns really needed to choose better timing to dawn.

The Doctor kneeled beside him with a sorrowful countenance and put a hand on his chest. His sadness quickly turned to confusion. I watched as he put two fingers on his neck, as if checking for a pulse.

"That's impossible," he breathed.

But he couldn't be alive. The burns beside his body proved that.

The Doctor jumped up ecstatically and yelled, "Whodaman! No? That still doesn't work."

The sunlight grew stronger as Sam and I stared at him blankly. What was going on?

"You two might want to stand back for this."

I looked up, shielding my eyes to realize that we were indoors. There was no sunlight, not even from outside. I wasn't even sure this planet was touched by the sun.

Cas's head and hands exploded in orange-yellow fire as his body writhed. It was like watching a volcano go off, except it was a lightshow. The Doctor was grinning in disbelief.

While Sam and I stood there, no knowing what to do. Light tendrils snaked around his body, wiping away the wing marks on the ground. If I didn't know better, I'd call it witchcraft.

Cas sat up, his hair sticking out in different directions. He blinked his electric blue eyes at me, panting. "Does it always feel like this?" he asked, turning to the Doctor and peeling himself off the ground.

"You get a bit used to it after the first three."

"How do I look?"

The Doctor shrugged. "You look messed up. Might want to wipe away that blood on your stomach."

"I mean my form, my body."

"You're still Jimmy Novak, if that's what you mean."

Cas tilted his head. "Interesting," he replied. "Must be some strange angel-timelord interaction."

My head started to hurt as I processed what was going on. My vision blurred and before I knew it, the ground was rushing up to me and fading away...

-Sam-

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there Dean," I said, catching him as he fainted.

"We should get him back to the TARDIS," said the Doctor. "Probably a bit of a shock for him."

Cas and I carried Dean through the doors of the police box. We put him down on the couch.

"So either one of you mind telling me what's going on?" I asked.

The Doctor sighed. "I don't know, but it's a miracle. I need to get down to the bottom of the TARDIS - maybe we can bring her back to life as well."

"I think I can explain," said Cas.

"In the dream arena, the Master was cutting into my ribcage. I could feel it, Jimmy could feel it as she pushed my organs around to make an empty cavity. I'm assuming that she was trying to mess my vessel up so that when I returned to the real world, I'd have a ton of problems to deal with. It didn't end up like that."

"Since the Master is a timelord, she had to use temporal energy to pop us out of whatever she put us in. She mentioned being part dream lord as well, so I'm assuming that she was unable to make a full transformation to a dream. She chose the closest thing possible, which was a kind of alternate reality."

"An alternate universe?" asked the Doctor hopefully, popping his head up.

Cas shook his head. "Well it was worth asking," muttered the Doctor. "Continue."

"As I was saying, the Master used temporal energy to send us back to this reality, which didn't interact with my vessel well. It must have been the fact that my angel form was in Jimmy's body, kind of like how your TARDIS and the Master's TARDIS appeared inside each other. The temporal energy tried to fix this, but failed, leaving me with a vessel with a human soul, an angel conscience, and much of that energy. Later on, I was flying through the time vortex and I crashed into the TARDIS. I shattered the glass, don't you remember? Some of your TARDIS seeped into me. Then I started to have chest pains. That was my second heart growing, since there was space. It would have been more painful if there wasn't already a gap in my system."

"When the Master stabbed me, it killed Jimmy. He is on his way to Heaven now, if he isn't there already. It's like a magnetic pull. He'll be in paradise, and he will be rewarded."

"Except my angel conscience recognised the timelord in me, and converted itself, causing me to 'die' and burn my wings. I miss them already. For some reason, instead of staying dead, the temporal energy in me activated, and my right heart kept beating, giving me time to regenerate. The fusion of angel-timelord must have seen this as an empty vessel, and only my mind changes. In another sense, I'm part angel, part timelord, locked inside a human body."

"Wow," I said, speechless. "That's... Amazing."

The Doctor emerged from what I assumed to be the 'engine room' - that was what I'd call it. "Castiel, I really can't believe that you're alive, and you're a breathing miracle, but we need to get out of here now. The planet didn't like how the Master meddled with its gravity - now it thinks that we did it. We'll be incinerated in about six and a half minutes if we don't figure something out."

"I can do something," said Cas.

"Yes, that's good, but we really need-" the Doctor blinked. "Oh. Oh. You don't mean-"

"I can use all of my regenerations at once to bring her back. It would leave me as something mostly human, but I'm fine with that. I've used one regeneration already, but the twelve should suffice."

"Castiel, you don't really -"

"Four minutes and three seconds. Your call, Doctor."

The Doctor considered for a moment. "If you're absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. Do it."

The entire room flooded with a blinding light. I closed my eyes as I heard the familiar whirring of the TARDIS as she woke up.

When the light died away, the Doctor was flipping switches and running around happily. We landed back in the motel, and it was like nothing had even happened. We moved Dean onto one of the beds. About half an hour later, he rubbed his eyes and woke up.

"Wha... Cas?" he asked weakly.

Cas walked over and sat next to him. "Hello, Dean." he said with a smile, smoothing back his hair.

Dean pulled Cas into a hug. "I thought you were dead," he murmured, pulling back slightly. "I couldn't bear to lose you too, out of all the people that I care about."

"You're never going to lose me, Dean Winchester." said Cas earnestly. "Neither of us will let that happen."

"Cas, what did you mean you understood? When you sort-of died, you told me that you understood something."

He whispered something in my brother's ear, and The Doctor and I turned away as they pressed their lips together.

"Doctor?" I asked.

"Mm?"

"How often is it that people travel with you?"

"Not very."

"The thing is..." I hesitated. "I have a feeling that Dean won't be doing much hunting anymore - not with me, at least."

"And?"

"Since there isn't much left for me on Earth, I was wondering if... You... If you wanted a companion."

The Doctor sighed, as if he were reliving the past. "I don't know, Sam. My friends, they always end up going in the worse ways. I feel like I've screwed up so many people, and I don't want to do the same to you."

"Doctor, I've watched my parents get killed. My girlfriend was slaughtered. I watched hellhounds drag Dean to Hell. I've been addicted to demon blood. I've helped to break 66 seals and nearly started the apocalypse. I've been Satan's vessel himself, and my soul has been stuck in a prison with two angry angels for a more than a year. If there's anything else you can do to mess me up further, you let me know."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I've been lonely without the Pond- without my old companions. Maybe I all I need is to travel with someone. I suppose that if you'd really like to come... I'd love that."

That was that. Dean and Cas hunted the supernatural together, and they were happy. Dean was better at hunting with Cas than with me, but I expected that. Surprisingly enough, I was okay with it too. Cas ended up still having his angel conscience, and somehow, he was called to Heaven and he grew his wings back. He really was half angel, half human. Dean was fine with that fact. They were perfect for each other. The rooms at the motels probably costed less, now that they only needed one bed (if you catch my drift). Not that it mattered. It wasn't like we paid for these things anyway.

As for me, I traveled around with the Doctor throughout time and space, visiting the Medusa cascade and the end of the world. We even visited Heaven to say hello (goodbye) to Jimmy. Everything was pretty damn awesome. Really. After everything that we'd been through, and everything that we'd done, maybe we really did deserve a happy ending. And maybe this time, it would stay a happy ending.


End file.
